Demo Day Question

[caniac6]

A local driving range was hosting a Callaway demo day, and they were charging $5 to participate. A pro that works there is on the Callaway staff, and they sell Callaway clubs. I've been playing for forty years, and I've never seen anybody charge for a demo day. Is this a common practice, or am I just out of touch?

[BostonBrew]

First I've heard of.

[dennyjones]

There have been two Demo days in our area and neither have charged.   Callaway was at each.

On another note but not too far removed, the local mountain bike demo charged $25 to demo mountain bikes (paid in advance) but served lunch and if you bought a bike the $25 went toward the cost of the bike.   It was used to keep the riffraff away.  It did, their numbers were way down.

You can walk into any bike department store (Dick's, Golfsmith) and demo anytime for free.

[ilikefishes]

It is up to the Pro how he wants to run his business. It might be to only bring in the right customers. One thing I liver by ifs "Never make the decision for the customer". Sounds to me like he doesn't live by that philosophy.

[newtogolf]

I've never been to a demo day that charges a fee to attend.  Usually courses / golf stores want as many attendees as possible to show up for the vendors and an admission fee would discourage that.  If the pro had food or some extra giveaways he may have wanted to recoup his costs, but as someone else said, it's his call how he runs his business.

[rowlf]

Wow. That sounds a bit rich for the pro to charge for demo day.

Unless it was a "private" demo day where the club pro needed this funds to get things organised, then it is perfectly fair for him. Still, it seems to defeat the purpose of demo day, which is to let golfers try out and hopefully secure their business and goodwill.

All official manufacturer demo days I have been to have been free of charge.

[ScouseJohnny]

Originally Posted by ilikefishes

It might be to only bring in the right customers.

I suppose I can understand the Ferrari dealer wanting to run a credit check and perhaps needing a hefty deposit before allowing any Joe Shmoe who stops by his dealership with a driving licence to take the new Berlinetta out for a spin, (not that I know very much about such things, as I drive around in ancient Jeep).

But a golf demo day? That's a little different. Alright, it's only $5, but it's still the principle of the thing. The company concerned is directly bringing its products to a place where it imagines likely customers are to be found, and then encouraging people to try them out, in the hope of making sales. Under those circumstances you have to take the rough with the smooth, I think. Maybe 9 people just try out the clubs for fun, and then the 10th buys a set of irons.

If the purpose of the $5 demo fee is to discourage time-wasters, I think a more likely outcome is that it will discourage people who may have been interested in trying new clubs and who subsequently might have made an impromptu purchase.

Maybe if the $5 was going in a charity box or something, I'd be OK with it. But if someone wants me to give them money (even a small amount) to explore the possibility of purchasing their product? No dice...